Teaching English as an International Language: Identity, Resistance and Negotiation (New Perspectives on Language and Education, Band 7) - Softcover

Le Ha, Phan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847690483 ISBN 13: 9781847690487

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

Building on both Western and Asian theoretical resources, the book examines how EIL teachers see themselves as professional and individual in relation to their work practices. It reveals the tensions, compromises, negotiations and resistance in their enactment of different roles and selves, especially when they are exposed to values often associated with the English-speaking West. The ways they perceive their identity formation problematise and challenge the seemingly dominant views of identity as always changing, hybrid and fragmented. Their experiences highlight the importance of the sense of belonging and being, connectedness, continuity and a coherent growth in identity formation. Their attachment to a particular locality and their commitment to perform the moral guide role as EIL teachers serve as the most powerful platform for all their other identities to be constructed, negotiated and reconstituted.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Phan Le Ha has recently been appointed Associate Professor of Education in the College of Education, The University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA, after nearly a decade lecturing in the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia. Her research interests include International Education, English as an International Language, Identity Studies, and Academic Writing.

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Teaching English as an International Language

Identity, Resistance and Negotiation

By Phan Le Ha

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2008 Phan Le Ha
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84769-048-7

Contents

Contents, 
Foreword, 
Acknowledgements, 
1 Introduction, 
2 Language, Culture and Identity, 
3 The Politics of English as an International Language and English Language Teaching, 
4 Identity Formation: Negotiations of Apparently Contradictory Roles and Selves, 
5 Identity Formation: The Teacher and the Politics of ELT, 
6 An EIL Teacher's Identity Formation: Kien, 
7 Teacher Identity and the Teaching of English as an International Language, 
References, 

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Teachers of the English word, we are tossed about, defined by others, insecure yet whole. We are special, knowledge experts, moral guides and yet the public's tails. We have access to the world, we belong, yet seem foreignised, unselectively Westernised. We are not allowed to be human, to fall in love (with students), yet we need to live, to change. We are nobody in this world of Others yet not the shadow of native English teachers we light the way for our own. We are the daughter-in-law of a hundred families And proudly ourselves, growing.

The Need to Investigate Teacher Identity in the Context of English as an International Language

The recent tendency to treat English as an international language (EIL) has suggested the possibility of forming a new group of EIL teachers (Llurda, 2004; McKay, 2002). Those who support this tendency have argued that much of the communication in English nowadays is between non-native speakers, and speakers of English tend to be multilingual. Nevertheless, how to teach EIL and how teachers of English negotiate their identities and reconceptualise their pedagogies remain under-discussed. In other words, while attention has been given to the development of EIL and EIL methodologies, the question of EIL teacher identity formation has hardly been addressed. In addition, within the limited existing literature on teacher identity in bilingual and second language education (Block, 2005; Morgan, 2004; Varghese, 2004; Varghese et al., 2005), identity is not a central concern. Neither is teacher identity in these works explored in close relationship with local teaching contexts and English as an international language.

Various aspects of teacher identity are assumed and imagined rather than proved in current literature on the ownership of EIL, such as whether teachers of English see themselves as ambassadors/international mediators or 'servants' of English, whether they negotiate their identities according to the romanticising prospects of EIL and how being teachers of English is seen by their societies. While globalisation heavily relies on English, and English language teaching (ELT) solely relies on English teachers and English teaching, what happens to English teachers and their teaching is an important question that needs to be explored, particularly in the context of mobility and transnationality. Moreover, understanding what teachers want, how they perceive themselves and how they are often represented is crucial to the success of ELT teacher training courses and EIL pedagogy in global and local contexts.

This book discusses in particular the identity formation of Western-trained Vietnamese teachers of English, whose identity formation processes respond to all of the above concerns. These EIL teachers see themselves as 'the daughter-in-law of a hundred families', a figurative translation of the Vietnamese expression 'lam dau tram ho'. It is assumed in Vietnamese society that being a daughter-in-law is very demanding, since a girl has to try hard to please her in-law family, particularly the mother-in-law. She will have to distribute her attention everywhere so as not to be judged as bad. She has to 'please' many parties. So when being a teacher is compared with being a daughter-in-law, it suggests that being a teacher is already hard, but being a daughter-in-law of a hundred families is a hundred times more difficult. How can a teacher satisfy all expectations from multiple parties? This expression indicates how difficult it is to play the teacher role in Vietnamese society, where whatever a teacher does is being judged by the whole society. At the global and transnational level, specifically given the literature surrounding EIL and these teachers' movement in space and time between Vietnam and the English-speaking West, the identity formation processes of these 'daughters-in-law of a hundred families' undergo complexity, contradictions, tensions, negotiations, sophistication yet fluidity, connectedness and continuity at all these interlinked mobile domains, personal, local, global and transnational.

In particular, this book examines how Western-trained Vietnamese teachers of EIL see themselves as professionals and as individuals in relation to their work practices. It reveals the often invisible sides of their identity, which are the tensions, compromises, negotiations and contradictions in their enactment of different roles and selves. Furthermore, very importantly, as Holliday (2005) consistently demonstrates in his book, native-speakerism (his term) is dominant in almost every teaching setting, and heavily influences EIL teachers' perceptions and practices. This book on the one hand examines in what ways and aspects native-speakerism applies to these Vietnamese teachers and on the other shows that they often do not identify themselves in relation to it and offer us alternatives that are healthy for critical EIL pedagogy.

'Daughter-in-Law of a Hundred Families': Western-trained Vietnamese Teachers of EIL

As a result of historical and political circumstances, Vietnam has only recently opened its doors to the world. English language education, though enjoying a long history in Vietnam (Phan Van Que et al., forthcoming), has only started to boom over the last 20 or so years. This boom has created opportunities for teachers of English to go overseas for further professional training. Australia has appeared to serve as the second 'former Soviet Union' in terms of training tertiary teachers and scholars for Vietnam since then. In addition, other English-speaking countries have also contributed to this teacher training and/or professional development process. There is now a large group of so-called 'Western-trained Vietnamese teachers of English' working at universities in Vietnam.

The last 20 years have witnessed the heyday of Vietnamese teachers of English. Their identities have been coupled with how English has been seen. Being a teacher of English has become desirable and fashionable, and it is attached to opportunities, wealth and advanced education. Teachers of English have also been seen as being more 'Westernised', in that their enactment of their teacher roles has been assumed to be more or less influenced by English and associated values. Those teachers who are trained in English-speaking countries are seen even more critically by Vietnamese society. They are, again, labelled with additional identities because of their physical exposure to the West.

Unlike its neighbouring countries, such as China, Japan, Korea and Thailand, where much of the English language teaching is done by native-English-speaking teachers (for example, Han, 2004; Sakui, 2004), in Vietnam most of this teaching is undertaken by local teachers. I see this as being healthy and playing an important role...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1847690483
• ISBN 13: 9781847690487
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 218
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland